NATIONAL CURRENT AFFAIRS 2020

COVID-19 Battle, Public Policy and Administration, Indian Society

 COVID- 19 Battle
To fight with the epidemic Finance Minister has suggested measures to augment the funds.

To deal with COVID-19 (Novel Coronavirus Disease), the Finance Minister has suggested that District Mineral Fund
should be utilized by the states.

Finance Minister also announced a package of 1.7 lakh crore under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana.

The package is aimed at providing relief to urban poor, rural poor, migrant workers and women at the bottom of
economic pyramid.

FInance Minister to Deal with COVID-19

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Overview
An insurance cover of Rs. 50 lakh per person will be provided to doctors and medical workers fighting COVID-19.
Free cylinders for the next three months will be provided to 8.33 crore families living below the poverty line.

Ex-gratia of Rs. 1,000 will be given to 3 crore poor senior citizens, disabled and widows.

For the next three months 5 kg wheat/rice and 1 kg preferred pulse will be provided to 80 crore poor people free
of cost.

MGNREGA wage increased from Rs. 182 a day to Rs. 202 per day for 13.62 crore families.

Rs 500 per month to be credited to 20.4 crore Jan Dhan women account for three months.

Under Pradhan Mantri KISAN yojana, government to front load Rs. 2000 in the first week of April to 8.7 crore
farmers.

The state governments have also been directed to use Construction Workers Welfare Fund to provide relief
to 3.5 crore registered workers.

Wage earners earning less than 15,000 per month in companies with less than 100
workers will get 24 % of their monthly wage in their PF account for next three months. Provision of free LPG for

Ujjwala beneficiaries for three months.

Women Self Help Groups (SHGs) will get Rs. 20 lakh collateral free loans.

As per the report of World Bank titled “Beaten or broken: Informality and Covid”, WB has warned that there will be
the lifelong impact of school closures on the productivity of this generation of students.
Children being out of school for about eight months might forget some facts as well as impact their learning capacity.
So, what is the benefit of nearly 100% enrolment ratio at primary level education? Despite one of the greatest
achievements in enrolling the students at primary level Covid-19 is stopping us to reap its benefits in the coming
future.
With any pandemic or any situation which impact the society at large comes the problem of psychological trauma.
The lockdown has proved that “man is a social being” because continuous lockdown for about four months have
impacted people psychologically and the burden has been faced by women and children in the form of domestic
violence.
In the lockdown period, multiple calls have been received on the helpline number made for the people going through
domestic violence.
As India is recognised as land of diversity, so the impact of Covid-19 is diverse and countless. But, if we see the other
side of reality, COVID-19 has impacted our society and that is for sure, but only adversely? That is the thing we need
to analyse carefully and can’t be left without a brief discussion.
It has been truly said that “crisis gives birth to the changes which were pending for many years”, same has happened
during the time of Covid-19. Things have been changed to meet the needs of the society what the government were
trying hard to implement from past many years.
Be it online education or judiciary, Covid-19 (crisis) has allowed making these major transformation in the education
and judiciary.
But, again the benefits from these transformations will be limited because of the gap in the digital connectivity of our
country.
At this stage, we should ask a genuine question: What kind of society we’ll see post-Covid-19? Fragmented? Unequal?
We don’t know but we’ll have to stand up again support each other. We’ll have to adopt values enshrined in our
Preamble of the Constitution i.e. “Equality, Fraternity, Integrity” as well as DPSP to make India a better place on earth
for its citizens and the world.
 Public Policy and Administration

Public Issues

The major dysfunctional ties found in the existing public administration system were: Politics administration
dichotomy is unrealized, irrelevant and unworkable, as the actors on either side frequently change positions and
the two activities intermesh in the practical world of governance.

• In public institutional life, there is no such thing as purely rational decision making. Rather it is bounded
(limited) rationality (as per SIMON)? In real situations, people have certain degree of subjectivity. Moreover,
the tendencies towards irrationality are not rare as many actors and forces impinge upon decisions and
compete for accommodation.

• Top-down policy implementation does not, in actually, work. It is now well accepted that public
administration is best looked after by self-steering groups rather than closely
supervised group. Hierarchy is essentially power-oriented rather than work oriented.

• Successful public administration is rarely rule bound. What matters is goal achievement and effectiveness.
In traditional public administration rules became the end rather than
means to an end. It encourages a culture of non performance, and shirking taking initiative.

• Centralization leads to rigidity. Hierarchy results in implementation deficit. Free flow of communication is
impeded by rigid hierarchy and centralization of power. Public institutions operate efficiently when
decentralized, allowing lower level initiative, adjustment, adaptability, flexibility.

• Public employees do not have any special type of motivation. In real life, they have often been found to act
to maximize self-interests like income, prestige and power, rather than public interest.

One Nation One Card Scheme

Three more states have been included under the scheme on ‘Integrated Management of Public Distribution
System’ (IM-PDS).

These states are

Odisha

Sikkim

Mizoram

In this system nation-wide portability through one nation one ration card is implemented under
NFSA.

The portability enables NFSA card holders to lift their entitled quota of subsidized food grains from any ePoS
enabled Fair Price Shop (FPS) of their choice anywhere in the country.

They can use their existing/same ration card after Aadhaar authentication on ePoS device.
 Overview
So far, the facility has been enabled in 17 states- Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and
Diu, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh,
Jharkhand, Kerala, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Punjab, Telangana, Tripura and
Uttar Pradesh.

Department of Food and Public Distribution is making constant efforts to expand the
reach of national portability to the beneficiaries of other states/UTs also in cooperation with respective state/UT
government.

To integrate the states with the national cluster requires preparatory activities like- Upgradation of ePoS

software

Integration with central IM-PDS

Integration with Annavitran portals

Availability of ration cards/beneficiaries data in Central repository Requisite testing of

national portability transactions

By august 2020, three more states will be added to the national cluster. These are Uttarakhand

Nagaland

Manipur

By March 31,2020 all states will be added to the One Nation One Ration Card scheme and the scheme will be
operational all over India.

 Indian Society

WHO India Country Cooperation Strategy 2019- 2023

‘The WHO India Country Cooperation Strategy 2019–2023: A Time of Transition’ has been
launched.

Overview of India CCS:

1. The India CCS is one of the first that fully aligns itself with the newly adopted WHO 13th General
Programme of Work and its 'triple billion' targets, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and WHO
South-East Asia Region’s eight Flagship Priorities.
2. It captures the work of the United Nations Sustainable Development Framework for 2018–2022.
3. The CCS outlines how WHO can support the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and other allied
Ministries to drive impact at the country level.
4. The strategy document builds on other key strategic policy documents including India’s National Health
Policy 2017, the many pathbreaking initiatives India has introduced — from Ayushman Bharat to its
National Viral Hepatitis programme and promotion of digital health amongst others.

What is Country Cooperation Strategy?

 CCS provides a strategic roadmap for WHO to work with the Government of India towards achieving its
health sector goals, in improving the health of its population and bringing in transformative changes in the
 health sector.
 It builds upon the work that WHO has been carrying out in the last several years.

 In addition, it identifies current and emerging health needs and challenges such as non- communicable
diseases, antimicrobial resistance and air pollution.

The four areas identified for strategic cooperation of WHO with the country encompass:
 To accelerate progress on UHC.
 To promote health and wellness by addressing determinants of health.
 To protect the population better against health emergencies.
To enhance India’s global leadership in health

New Anti-Tuberculois Drug

 U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new drug Pretomanid for treating drug- resistant
tuberculosis — multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB).

Key facts:
 Pretomanid is only the third new anti-TB drug approved for use by FDA in more than 40 years.
 Pretomanid will be part of the three-drug regimen for drug approval by the European Medicines
Agency (EMA).
 The duration of treatment for drug-resistant TB can be drastically cut from 18-24 months to just six-nine
months when pretomanid drug is used along with two already approved drugs — bedaquiline and linezolid.
 The all-oral, three-drug regimen can also vastly improve the treatment success rate and potentially
decrease the number of deaths due to better adherence to treatment.

How widespread is MDR-TB and XDR-TB?

 People with TB who do not respond to at least isoniazid and rifampicin, which are first-line TB drugs are
said to have MDR-TB.
 People who are resistant to isoniazid and rifampin, plus any fluoroquinolone and at least one of three
injectable second-line drugs (amikacin, kanamycin, or capreomycin) are said to have XDR-TB.
 As per the World Health Organisation’s Global Tuberculosis Report 2018, an estimated 4.5 lakh people across
the world have MDR-TB and nearly 37,500 people have XDR-TB.

What is tuberculosis (TB)?

 It is a disease caused by bacteria that are spread from person to person through the air. TB usually affects
the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body, such as the brain, the kidneys, or the spine.
 In most cases, TB is treatable and curable; however, persons with TB can die if they do not get proper
treatment.

How does drug resistance happen?

Resistance to anti-TB drugs can occur when these drugs are misused or mismanaged. Examples include when patients do
not complete their full course of treatment; when health-care providers prescribe the wrong treatment, the wrong dose,
or length of time for taking the drugs; when the supply of drugs is not always available; or when the drugs are of poor
quality.

E- 2020 Initiative
 Four countries from Asia — China, Iran, Malaysia and Timor-Leste — and one from Central America — El
Salvador — reported no indigenous cases of malaria in 2018, according to the World Health Organzation
(WHO).

 According to a WHO analysis published in 2016, 21 countries have the potential to eliminate malaria by 2020.
They were selected based on an analysis that looked at the likelihood of elimination across 3 key criteria:
 o trends in malaria case incidence between 2000 and 2014;
o declared malaria objectives of affected countries; and
o informed opinions of WHO experts in the field.
 Together, these 21 malaria-eliminating countries are part of a concerted effort known as the E-2020 initiative,
supported by WHO and other partners, to eliminate malaria in an ambitious but technically feasible time
frame.

India (4 per cent) was among the five countries, the others being — Nigeria (25 per cent), Democratic Republic of
the Congo (11 per cent), Mozambique (5 per cent), and Uganda (4 per cent) — that accounted for nearly 50 per cent
of all malaria cases worldwide.

 Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by Plasmodium parasites that are transmitted to people through
the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. It is preventable and curable.
 Children aged under 5 years are the most vulnerable group affected by malaria.
 The WHO African Region carries a disproportionately high share of the global malaria burden. In 2018, the
region was home to 93% of malaria cases and 94% of malaria deaths.
 Vector control is the main way to prevent and reduce malaria transmission.
 Antimalarial medicines can also be used to prevent malaria. For travellers, malaria can be prevented through
chemoprophylaxis, which suppresses the blood stage of malaria infections, thereby preventing malaria disease.

The National Framework for Malaria Elimination (NFME) 2016-2030 outlines India’s strategy for elimination of the
disease by 2030 synchronising with the Global Technical Strategy (GTS) for Malaria 2016-2030 of World Health
Organisation (WHO).

 The countries were part of the global health body’s E-2020 initiative, launched in 2016, working in 21
countries, spanning five regions, to scale up efforts to achieve malaria elimination by 2020.

What is the E-2020 initiative?

In May 2015, the World Health Assembly endorsed a new Global Technical Strategy for Malaria 2016-2030, setting
ambitious goals aimed at dramatically lowering the global malaria burden over this 15-year period, with milestones along
the way to track progress. A key milestone for 2020 is the elimination of malaria in at least 10 countries that had the
disease in 2015. To meet this target, countries must report zero indigenous cases in 2020.

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)

Every year, February 6 is observed as the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

What is Female Genital Mutilation?

It is the name given to procedures that involve altering or injuring the female genitalia for non- medical or cultural
reasons, and is recognised internationally as a violation of human rights and the health and integrity of girls and
women.
 Female genital mutilation (FGM) involves the partial or total removal of external female genitalia or
other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.
 The practice has no health benefits for girls and women.
 FGM can cause severe bleeding and problems urinating, and later cysts, infections, as well as complications in
childbirth and increased risk of newborn deaths.
 FGM is mostly carried out on young girls between infancy and age 15.

Types:
WHO classifies four types of FGM:
1. type 1 (partial or total removal of the clitoral glans).
2. type 2 (partial or total removal of the external and visible parts of the clitoris and the inner folds of
the vulva).
3. type 3 (infibulation, or narrowing of the vaginal opening through the creation of a covering seal).
 4. type 4 (picking, piercing, incising, scraping and cauterising the genital area).

Where is it practiced?
Most girls and women who have undergone FGM live in sub-Saharan Africa and the Arab States, but it is also practiced
in some countries in Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America.
Countries where FGM is performed include Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo,
Sudan, Egypt, Oman, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Iraq, Iran, Georgia, Russian Federation, Columbia and Peru, among
others.

Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2020

Union Cabinet has approved the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2020.

Key features of the Bill:

• It allows any "willing" woman to be a surrogate mother and proposes that widows and divorced women can
also benefit from its provisions, besides infertile Indian couples.
The bill also proposes to regulate surrogacy by establishing National Surrogacy Board at the central level and,
State Surrogacy Board and appropriate authorities in states and Union Territories respectively.
• The proposed insurance cover for surrogate mother has now been increased to 36 months from 16 months
provided in the earlier version.
• Commercial surrogacy will be prohibited including sale and purchase of human embryo and gametes.
• Ethical surrogacy to lndian married couples, Indian-origin married couples and Indian single woman (only
widow or divorcee between the age of 35 and 45 years) will be allowed on fulfilment of certain conditions.

All medical devices to be treated as ‘Drugs’

The central government had notified all medical devices as ‘drugs’, effective from April 1, bringing a range of products
from instruments to implants to even software intended for medical use in human beings or animals under the purview
of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940.
At present, only 37 medical devices are notified as drugs.
The health ministry made some amendments to the Medical Devices Rules, 2017.

Significance and implications of this move:

 Apart from expanding the scope of regulation to ensure safety and efficacy, the move may pave the way
for regulation of prices under the Drugs Price Control Order (DPCO).
 It will also make companies, in case of violations, liable to be penalised in a court of law.
 Companies will now have to seek approval from the drug controller to manufacture, import and sell any
medical device in the country.
 Medical devices shall be registered with the Central Licensing Authority through an identified online portal
established by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO). Such registration is voluntary for a
period of 18 months, after which it will be mandatory.
 The manufacturer of a medical device shall upload the information relating to that medical device for
registration on the “Online System for Medical Devices” established by the CDSCO. Importers too will be
required to do the same.

What is the “Drugs (Prices Control) Order (DPCO)”?

The Drugs Prices Control Order is an order issued by the Government of India under Sec. 3 of Essential
Commodities Act, 1955 to regulate the prices of drugs.
The Order interalia provides the list of price-controlled drugs, procedures for fixation of prices of drugs, method
of implementation of prices fixed by Govt., penalties for contravention of provisions etc.
For the purpose of implementing provisions of DPCO, powers of Govt. have been vested in National
Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA).

Are all the drugs marketed in the country under price control?
No. The National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) 2011 is adopted as the primary basis for determining essentiality,
which constitutes the list of scheduled medicines for the purpose of price control. The DPCO 2013 contains more than
600 scheduled drug formulations spread across 27 therapeutic groups. However, the prices of other drugs can be
regulated, if warranted in public interest.

Whether NPPA has any role to regulate prices of non-scheduled drugs?

The manufacturer of a non-scheduled drugs (drugs not under direct price control) is not required to take price approvals
from NPPA for such drugs. However, NPPA is required to monitor the prices of such drugs and take corrective measures
where warranted and their includes the power to fix and regulate such prices.

What is NPPA and its role?

National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), was established on 29th August 1997 as an independent body of
experts as per the decision taken by the Cabinet committee in September 1994 while reviewing Drug Policy.
Functions: The Authority, interalia, has been entrusted with the task of fixation/revision of prices of
pharmaceutical products (bulk drugs and formulations), enforcement of provisions of the Drugs (Prices Control)
Order and monitoring of the prices of controlled and decontrolled drugs in the country.

Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing

Practices(UCPMP)
Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) has yet again “requested companies to abide by Uniform Code of
Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (UCPMP)”.

Background:
There have been several instances of breach of the voluntary Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices
(UCPMP) by pharma companies. There has also been the demand from the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and
doctors to make it mandatory.

What is UCPMP Code?

It is a voluntary code issued by the Department Of Pharmaceuticals relating to marketing practices for Indian
Pharmaceutical Companies and as well medical devices industry.
Applicability: At present, the UCPMP Code is applicable on Pharmaceutical Companies, Medical Representatives,
Agents of Pharmaceutical Companies such as Distributors, Wholesalers, Retailers, and Pharmaceutical Manufacturer's
Associations.

Key features and provisions:

 No gifts, pecuniary advantages or benefits in kind may be supplied, offered or promised, to persons
qualified to prescribe or supply drugs, by a pharmaceutical company or any of its agents.
 UCPMP Code prohibits extending travel facility inside the country or outside, including rail, air, ship, cruise
tickets, paid vacations, etc., to HealthCare Professionals and their family members for vacation or for attending
conference, seminars, workshops, CME programme etc. as a delegate. The Code also provides that free
samples of drugs shall not be supplied to any person who is not qualified to prescribe such product. Meaning
thereby that free samples can only be supplied to persons qualified to prescribe such product.
 It also prescribes additional conditions that are to be observed while providing samples.
 In order to appoint Medical Practitioners/HCPs as Affiliates there should be written contract, legitimate need
for the services must be documented, and criteria for selecting affiliates must be directly related to the
identified need.
 The UCPMP Code also provides that the number of affiliates retained must not be greater than the number
reasonably necessary to achieve the identified need and that the compensation must be reasonable and reflect
the fair market value of the services provided.

Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA)

A laboratory analysis of most packaged and fast food items sold in India has revealed high salt and fat content, in
violation of thresholds set by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
The study found that much of Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) is used (or exhausted) by eating these foods.

What is Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA)?

It is used to understand how much of any nutrient (salt, sugar, fat) should be consumed from different meals.
Most packaged foods fall in the ‘snack’ category and the RDA of this food is, therefore, a
proportion of daily intake.
It is influenced by: Sex – In general requirement is more for men than women. Age- Adult men and women
require nutrients for maintenance whereas infants and children require it for growth and maintenance.
Nutrient requirements during childhood are proportional to growth rate.

Mental Disorders High in South India

The study titled ‘burden of mental disorders across the States of India: Global Burden of Disease Study 1990-2017’. It
has been conducted by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI).

Why depression and anxiety high in South India?

The higher prevalence of depressive and anxiety disorders in southern States could be related to the higher levels of
modernisation and urbanisation in these States and to many other factors that are not yet well understood.

What other mental health disorders?

Other notable mental health disorders in South Indian States were schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, idiopathic
developmental intellectual disability (IDID), conduct disorder, autism spectrum disorders, eating disorders and
attention deficit hyperactivity disorders (ADHD).

Maternal Mortality in India

A Special Bulletin on Maternal Mortality in India 2015-2017 from the Sample Registration System has been
released.

Key facts:
• Maternal mortality ratio is measured as the number of maternal deaths per lakh live births.
• It varies among the Indian states from a high of 229 per lakh in Assam to a low of 42 in Kerala.
• Across the country, the maternal mortality ratio has declined from 130 during 2014-2016 to 122 during 2015-
17.

According to the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the global target is to bring down the
MMR to fewer than 70 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births by 2030.

National Institute of Sowa-Rigpa (NISR)

The Union Cabinet had approved setting up of National Institute of Sowa-Rigpa (NISR) at
Leh, Union Territory of Ladakh.

Key facts:
 It will be an autonomous national institute under the Ministry of AYUSH with the mandate to undertake
interdisciplinary education and research programmes in Sowa-Rigpa in collaboration with national and
international institutes.
 It will act as an apex institute for Sowa-Rigpa system. The existing Sowa-Rigpa institutions work under the
Ministry of Culture.

What is Sowa -Rigpa?

 It is a traditional system of medicine practised in the Himalayan belt of India.
 It originated in Tibet and popularly practiced in countries namely, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Mongolia, and
Russia.
 The majority of theory and practice of Sowa-Rigpa is similar to “Ayurveda”.
 Yuthog Yonten Gonpo from Tibet is believed to be the father of Sowa Rigpa.

The basic theory of Sowa-Rigpa may be adumbrated in terms of the following five points:
 The body in disease as the locus of treatment.
 Antidote, i.e., the treatment.
 The method of treatment through antidote.
 Medicine that cures the disease.
 Materia Medica, Pharmacy & Pharmacology.

National Policy on Education (NPE)

The National Policy on Education (NPE) is a policy formulated by the Government of India to promote education
amongst India's people. The policy covers elementary education to colleges in both rural and urban India. The first NPE
was promulgated in 1968 by the government of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and the second by Prime Minister Rajiv
Gandhi in 1986. The government of India had appointed a new committee under K. Kasturirangan to prepare a Draft for
the new National Education Policy in 2017.

Key highlights of the draft:

Early childhood care and education:
 High-quality early childhood care and education will be provided for all children between the ages of 3 and 6
by 2025.
 This will be done within institutions such as schools and anganwadis, which would have a mandate to take
care of the overall well-being of the child—nutritional, health, and education.
 These institutions will also provide similar support to families for children younger than three years of age—
within their homes. The criticality of brain development in the early years has become clear in the past few
decades; this policy will result in a massive positive multiplier effect on society.

Ensuring foundational literacy and numeracy:

 Every student will start achieving age-appropriate foundational literacy and numeracy by 2025. A slew of
programmes and measures are articulated for this purpose. This is aimed at the basic issue facing our
education system today—of students not being able to read, write and do elementary math.

Transformed curricular and pedagogical structure for school education:

 The curriculum and pedagogical structures will be designed anew to be appropriate and effective, based
on children’s cognitive and socio-emotional development.
  The curriculum will be integrated and flexible with equal emphasis on all subjects and fields. There will be no
separation of curricular, co-curricular or extra-curricular areas—with all in a single category of equal
importance.
 Vocational and academic streams will be integrated and offered to all students. Examination systems will be
radically changed to assess real learning, make them stress-free, and aim for improvement instead of the
passing of judgements.

The current structure of school education must be restructured on the basis of the development needs of students.
This would consist of a 5-3-3-4 design comprising: (i) five years of foundational stage (three years of pre-primary school
and classes one and two), (ii) three years of preparatory stage (classes three to five), (iii) three years of middle stage
(classes six to eight), and
(iv) four years of secondary stage (classes nine to 12).

Universal access and retention in schools:

 All Indians between ages 3 and 18 to be in school by 2030. The Right to Education Act will be extended from
pre-school to class XII.

Teachers at the centre:

 The profession of teaching, and so teachers, will be at the centre of the education system, focused on the
student and educational aims. All schools will be fully resourced with teachers—with working conditions for an
energetic work culture. No“temporary” teachers will be allowed; all positions will be filled with competent
and qualified teachers. A development- oriented performance management system will be put in place. The
teacher education system will be transformed, with rigorous teacher preparation through a four-year
integrated stage and subject-specific programmes offered only in multi-disciplinary institutions.

New institutional architecture for higher education:

• India’s current 800 universities and over 40,000 colleges will be consolidated into about 10,000-15,000 institutions
of excellence to drive improvement in quality and expansion of capacity. This architecture will have only large
multi-disciplinary institutions, with significant investment.
Three types of higher education institutions will be there: Type 1 universities focused on research but also
teaching all programmes, undergrad to doctoral; Type 2 universities focused on teaching all programmes
while also conducting research and; Type 3 colleges focused on teaching undergrad programmes. All types
will grant their own degrees. There will be no system of university affiliations.

High-quality liberal education:

 All undergraduate education will be broad-based liberal education that integrates the rigorous study of
sciences, arts, humanities, mathematics and vocational and professional fields with choices offered to
students. Imaginative and flexible curricula will develop critical thinking, creative abilities and other
fundamental capacities. Multiple exit and entry points will be offered, with appropriate certification after
one, two, three and four years of study. There will be a four-year undergraduate programme available in
addition to three-year programmes.

Increase in public investment:

 There will be a substantialincrease in public investment to expand and vitalize public education at all
levels.

What is left out?

 While the policy talks about the need to bring “unrepresented groups” into school and focus on educationally
lagging “special education zones”, it misses a critical opportunity of addressing inequalities within the
education system.
 It misses to provide solutions to close the gap of access to quality education between India’s
rich and poor children.
 Not specifying a common minimum standard below which schools cannot fall, creates conditions where
quality of facilities in some schools will only sink lower, widening this gap.
• It proposes a roll back of existing mechanisms of enforcement of private schools making parents “de-facto
regulators” of private schools. Parents, and particularly poor and neo- literate parents, cannot hold the onus of
ensuring that much more powerful and resourced schools comply with quality, safety and equitynorms.
 POCSO Act
 The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act) 2012 was formulated in order to
effectively address sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children.
 Role of police: The Act casts the police in the role of child protectors during the investigative process. Thus,
the police personnel receiving a report of sexual abuse of a child are given the responsibility of making urgent
arrangements for the care and protection of the child, such as obtaining emergency medical treatment for the
child and placing the child in a shelter home, and bringing the matter in front of the CWC, should the need
arise.
 Safeguards: The Act provides for special courts that conduct the trial in-camera and without revealing the
identity of the child, in a manner that is as child-friendly as possible. Hence, the child may have a parent or
other trusted person present at the time of testifying and can call for assistance from an interpreter, special
educator, or other professional while giving evidence. The Act stipulates that a case of child sexual abuse
must be disposed of within one year (as far as possible) from the date the offence is reported.
 Mandatory reporting: The Act also provides for mandatory reporting of sexual offences. This casts a legal duty
upon a person who has knowledge that a child has been sexually abused to report the offence; if he fails to do
so, he may be punished with six months’ imprisonment and/ or a fine.
 Definitions: The Act defines a child as any person below eighteen years of age. It defines different forms of
sexual abuse, including penetrative and non-penetrative assault, as well as sexual harassment and
pornography. It deems a sexual assault to be “aggravated” under certain circumstances, such as when the
abused child is mentally ill or when the abuse is committed by a person in a position of trust or authority like a
family member, police officer, teacher, or doctor.
People who traffic children for sexual purposes are also punishable under the provisions relating to abetment in
the Act.